Data breakdowns – fast action also pays off from a cost perspective

In its "Cost of Data Breach" study commissioned by IBM, the Ponemon Institute investigated the specific costs caused by data breakdowns.
Interestingly, only half of all data breaches are due to criminal attacks. However, they cost more and are discovered and fixed later than the other half caused by human or technical errors. The process from discovery to resolution of the data breach is called the Breach Lifecycle.

For comparison

A comparison has shown that data breakdowns in Germany are more expensive at 174 euros, but the response time is much faster at 170 days. The reason for this is the stricter legal requirements and the associated complex reporting processes that apply in Germany, as well as the new GDPR protection basic regulation.

But no matter what type of data breakdown and in which country, most of the costs are caused by stagnating work processes and lost revenues. Closely followed by costs for eliminating and improving future security. "And", says Wendi Whitmore, Global Lead at IBM, "Data breakdowns still cause costs years after the incident (...)". 

One possible solution, according to the Ponemon Institute, could be a sophisticated incident response system that communicates and accelerates the discovery and resolution of the incident to reduce costs in the long term. 

Ultimately, the speed and efficiency with which companies react to data breakdowns determine the level of costs incurred.